I was reading a report from Kelly Services this week titled Gen Y @ Work (Available from IDG Connect at this link, but registration is required).  It described how for the first time, four generations are employed side by side in many organizations today - the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y.  It described the sometimes wide ranges of values and attitudes that each group brings to the workplace.  The intent of the article was to help organizations and recruiters understand these unique characteristics and how they need to create programs tailored to the needs of each and in particular Generation Y since they are the future leaders that businesses need to attract and retain.

The article described one of the unique characteristics of Gen Y is how technically literate and savvy they are.  Many describe them as digital natives, or those who were born during or after the general introduction of digital technology.  Digital natives have always lived in a connected world.  Unlike digital immigrants, who were born before this general introduction of technology and have adopted it.

I found the discussion about how Gen Y makes purchasing decisions to be very interesting.  The old model resembles a funnel in shape, where marketing campaigns reached out to a large number of consumers to create awareness of the product or service, but only converted a small number at the end of the funnel.  The article described Gen Y as more of an engagement model where they turn to their social network first to become aware of a product or service which creates an amplifying effect.  This effect is also created at the end of the transaction as they share their experiences with their social network.  The article describes this engagement model as more of a fish shape.

I was reading another blog post later in the week over at Mike 2.0 (The Open Source Standard for Information Management) that described how some employees have to fly "under the radar" with the tools they use to collaborate with others, both inside and outside their organization.  It discussed how sometimes it is better to "go rogue" in order to get your job done instead of asking for permission first.

Generation Y is accustomed to working with tools that enable them to reach out quickly to their associates for help and feedback.  Organizations need to rethink how they share their content today and if their current collaboration tools and methods will support this "always connected" way of working.  Generation Y may also challenge organizations to rethink what is really proprietary and confidential to the organization since they share more information with their social networks for feedback and input, as in the purchasing example described above.  That will likely include soliciting those they trust in their social network for ideas and feedback on their work projects.